HISTORIC MOMENT: MORE THAN 1 MILLION EUROPEANS DEMAND ACCESS TO SAFE ABORTION CARE FOR ALL

Today, “My Voice, My Choice: for Safe and Accessible” European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) was formally submitted to the European Commission with 1.124.513 verified signatures from all over Europe. After almost a year and a half of campaigning this is a historic moment for reproductive rights in Europe. It is the first time reproductive rights will be put on the agenda of the European Commission with a concrete legislative demand by the citizens of Europe through the only direct democratic tool they have - the European Citizens’ Initiative. 

Reflecting on the the My Voice, My Choice journey Nika Kovač, the campaign coordinator, said:

“A year and a half ago we started My Voice, My Choice because we wanted to bring hope in times of much sadness and despair. We wanted to create a connected movement for reproductive rights in Europe and around the globe that will fight so that every woman has the right to choose. Today we are the largest feminist movement in Europe, a community built on kindness, compassion and solidarity.”

Looking forward she added: 

“More than a million signatures are more than a million voices demanding that the EU finally takes action, that it must protect women and pass legislation that would help provide access to safe and accessible abortion care. But these are not just voices for concrete legislative action, these are voices for a Europe of equality, solidarity and compassion. Voices for a more just, free and hopeful future.”

20 million women in the EU are without access to safe abortion care

The lack of access to abortion in many parts of Europe not only puts women at risk of physical harm but also puts undue economic and mental stress on women and families, often on the margins of society that can afford it the least. Right now more than 20 million women in the EU do not have access to safe abortion care. We all know the horrific stories of women dying in hospitals in Poland because of the abortion ban. In Malta there is an almost complete ban and a threat of going to prison if you had an abortion. In Croatia and Italy, systemic conscientious objection means that access to abortion often depends on where you live, how much money you have, or whether you can travel. What is guaranteed by law in theory becomes, in practice, a matter of inequality and social privilege. 

Nobody should dictate what women should do. Our campaign is about protecting the right of every woman in Europe to make the choice for themselves and to be able, if they so choose, to access safe, legal, and free abortion services. Evidence shows that restricting access to abortion does not stop it from happening, but it does stop it from happening safely. Where abortion is not affordable, it creates a class divide in access. Those who have the means either pay privately or travel to access the abortion services they need. Those without may put their own lives at risk by seeking unsafe alternatives. We want to ensure that every woman has a right to free and accessible abortion care.

Belle De Jung, reproductive rights advocate and journalist, Malta: “Women in Malta are forced to keep their abortions a secret, unable to tell even their mothers or closest friends, because seeking healthcare is a crime. The stigma remains ever-present. I know this personally. I’ve written extensively about abortion in Malta, including my own. When I spoke about my abortion on national television, the interviewer was hostile and the backlash immense. Thankfully, slowly but surely, the conversation is changing. More people now understand that this fight is not about being pro-abortion – it’s about being pro-choice: letting women decide over their own lives with dignity, safety, and freedom. The My Voice, My Choice campaign was fundamental in that conversation.”

Severina, pop star, Croatia: “Our mothers fought for it, then in free Croatia we were sneakily kept with the right to terminate a pregnancy, but in many hospitals women cannot exercise it. We do not want future generations to have fewer rights than we do. The European Union is not only based on the free market and the free movement of people, but also on peoples solidarity - I think that women, by signing this citizens' initiative from the countries of the European Union that have free and easily accessible abortion, have especially shown it.”

Unified Voices: The right to choose is a fundamental human right

The idea for My Voice, My Choice arose in Slovenia in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned in the US and millions of women losing the right to choose overnight. We wanted to prevent what happened in the US from happening in Europe. The movement to protect and advance reproductive rights in Europe, quickly grew driven by the understanding that abortion is part of primary healthcare services and that the right to choose is a fundamental human right. 

We have become the largest feminist movement in Europe supported by more than 200 diverse organisations from medical professionals, feminist and environmental groups to trade unions. My Voice, My Choice has become an inclusive and vibrant community of people from all walks of life, of different religions, ages and political persuasions. 

Luisa Neubauer, writer and climate justice activist, Germany: “We will not be divided. We will not be reduced. We know that every insult, every threat, every attempt to control us only makes our solidarity more urgent. Because as long as women are attacked for being women, as long as others make the rules both for our futures and our bodies,   we resist. We will no longer accept a system that thrives on the exploitation of our bodies and the destruction of our world. We stand for dignity. We stand for autonomy. We stand for one another. And together, we will shake up the European Union, and get on the nerves of everyone who still denies us our basic rights.”

Anastasia Giamali, journalist and TV personality, Greece: “Basic human rights are under attack everywhere. Not having to care, not having to fight is a privilege. Not stepping down from this fight is our obligation not only for those that now don't have the privilege, but at the end of the line, for all of us.”

On reproductive health and rights EU politicians must go from words to action

With the ECI now formally submitted to the European Commission the formal procedures inside EU institutions begin. First the demand of My Voice, My Choice that the European Commission - in the spirit of solidarity - proposes legislation that would create a mechanism for financial support to Member States that would be able to perform safe termination of pregnancies for anyone in Europe who still lacks access to safe and legal abortion, will be presented in a meeting with the Commission. Then the European Parliament will hold a hearing and in 6 months the Commission has to accept a reply in which it will say if they will 

At the press conference a quote from a letter written in 2019 by the then and current European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was read: “The European Commission's task in this field is to provide full support to Member States' efforts in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals relevant to women's health, universal access to sexual and reproductive care, family planning and education.”

Unfortunately no real action was taken by the EU in the 6 years after this letter. “We, the citizens of Europe, had to act, because the EU and its politicians didn’t. Improving access to safe abortion for millions of women across Europe and preventing needless suffering and fatalities should be a top priority of the EU. That is why we want the EU politicians to see My Voice, My Choice as the moment they finally go from words to action, to see its citizens as partners in making a freer, safer and more just Europe.” concluded Nika Kovač, coordinator of the My Voice, My Choice movement.